An ICS project Published
When did planners stop drawing the city?
A century ago, planners imagined whole cities and drew them by hand, in public. Today the craft too often produces defensible reports instead of places. The Lost Art of the Plan tells how the art was lost, and teaches how to practice it again. Free, practical, and written for working planners.
The book
The Lost Art of the Plan.
A Guide to Seeing the City Whole, published by the Institute for Civic Service.
112
Pages, in eight chapters and four parts: the dream of order, the loss of the art, reclaiming it, and the way forward.
The Lost Art of the Plan, Second Edition, 2026
8
Chapters, from the spark of two visions to the resilient city: planning as a creative act.
The Lost Art of the Plan, contents
Free
To read online and to download, in digital and print editions. A plan for planning should belong to the people who plan.
planforplanning.org
Inside the book
Four habits of a planner who sees the whole city.
The book's Artist's Method, in its own labels: four disciplines for any public servant, not planners alone.
The discipline of witness
Leave the aerial view of the spreadsheet. Learn the street as the people who live on it know it.
The art of moral synthesis
No citizen experiences life department by department. Weave housing, transit and health into one civic whole.
The courage to test
Try small before building big. A cheap experiment turns speculation into evidence.
The discipline of critique
Begin with an audit of history, not a blank page: what was promised, what was delivered, who bore the cost.
The whole book is waiting.
Read the Preface, the Introduction and Chapter 6 free online, or download the complete book.
More from ICS
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A from-scratch rewrite of the federal surface transportation law, written with practitioners.
Crafting the New Civil Service
The doctrine behind the work, in development: the classic pillars of governance, upgraded.
Our Work
Everything the Institute is building, and the library of essays, drafts and reports.
An ICS project
